


Pizza

by zephalien



Series: community center paul [3]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Awkwardness, Bad Days, Feelings, Frustration, Gen, paul has some? maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22440643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephalien/pseuds/zephalien
Summary: this takes place after s3e4Even the vicar needs a little emotional support and he gets some, however unwillingly, in the form of local socially awkward detective Alec Hardy. (Just a little though.)
Relationships: Paul Coates & Alec Hardy
Series: community center paul [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598026
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Pizza

**Author's Note:**

> Context for those who have forgotten the scene that happens before Paul runs into Hardy:
> 
> Mark: Paul! Hello, mate. I've been looking everywhere for you.  
> Paul: When you say "everywhere", do you mean "the church"?  
> Mark: Well, yeah.  
> Paul: Yeah, they do sometimes allow me outside of the exclusion zone.  
> Mark: A vicar with a sense of humour? You should advertise. What are you doing tomorrow?  
> Paul: Er Are you genuinely asking for a list of my appointments?  
> Mark: No. But do you think you could move them?  
> Paul: No. Why would I do that?  
> Mark: I'm going on a trip. I thought you should maybe come along too.  
> Paul: A trip where?  
> Mark: I've found Joe Miller.  
> Paul: Absolutely not.  
> Mark: It's time to put things right, Paul.  
> Paul: We did that.  
> Mark: No, we-  
> Paul: Yes, we did! Enough of this shit, Mark! Just leave it alone.  
> Mark: I can't do that, I'm afraid.  
> Paul: Then you're on your own.  
> Mark: Fine.

Paul is striding through town with a look on his face like he is ready to kill someone. Hardy sees him rush by without even glancing at him and before he can really think it through he is shouting after him. It's been a long time since they talked. He feels like his time away from Broadchurch has changed him into something different, maybe someone a bit less guarded. Judging off the expression Paul has on his face when he wheels at him, the time has had the opposite effect on the good vicar.

"Paul." Hardy tips his head politely before looking him over carefully. It makes Paul close his eyes in frustration pull in a deep breath.

"I don't really have time to chat right now, DI Hardy." Paul tells him, irritation rolling off of him in waves. Hardy cringes hearing the formal title from Paul who normally calls him by his first name. It's funny, because he usually hates it, but now the absence was glaring and uncomfortable.

Hardy puts his hands in his pockets and nods chewing on his cheek. "That's fine. I was just... seeing how you are."

"How I am? Why?" Paul questions and Hardy pointedly doesn't react to his tone or the way he seems about to burst out of his skin. 

"You seem upset." Hardy responds. He can already feel himself settling into an internal distance from the vicar. He remembers the feeling from when he had interrogated the man. His anger had been a force of nature and it made Hardy's training kick in. Emotions going flat, neutral, waiting. This was the same.

"Upset." Paul repeated and his eyes flick closed again. He opens them and peers at Hardy intensely. "I'm sorry, but why is that any of your business?"

"Just asking, vicar." Hardy shrugs. He could just let it go, but something about Paul makes him want to pry, despite how poorly the conversation is going.

Paul, tight-lipped, exhales furiously from his nose. Hardy can see the muscles in his jaw working. He closes his eyes once more and, unbidden, Hardy wonders if he has a headache. Neither of them move for a long moment and when Paul finally opens his eyes he seems to be holding back angry tears, judging by way his eyes are now glazed and red.

"Paul." Hardy says alarmed, genuine concern breaking through his neutral facade.

Paul hastily drags a sleeve across his face, "Look, can we not do this?"

Hardy nods, but doesn't manage to remove the worried scrutiny from his brow. "Okay. Of course."

Paul bobs his head and seems to be trying to still himself a bit, before he turns and starts to hurry away.  
"Wait! Paul!" Hardy calls and the man turns back to face him with a questioning look. "Can I come by later?"

Paul's expression is tight, but he nods. "Fine. See you."  
Then he's gone. 

\-----------------------

When Hardy wanders to the church grounds, the sun is setting already. He stops by the church first, but it's empty. He looks around at the big empty space and thinks about Paul spending time in this giant old building all alone most days. It makes him feel sort of sad in a strange way. He leaves the supposed sacred space with that strange sense of sadness creeping into his chest and wanders down the hill to the vicar's little house. He does have a concept of this visit being unwelcome as he knocked on the door, but people were rarely ever that happy to see him so he shrugs it away easily and hopes that Paul will at least be in. 

The door swings open and Paul squints at him. His hair is in disarray and he is wearing soft sleep pants and a light jumper. "Alec?" He seems genuinely baffled by the man's appearance on his doorstep.

"Evening, vicar." Hardy greets him feigning nonchalance. They stare one another down for a second, before Hardy starts to feel a bit twitchy. "Are you going to invite me in?"

"Uh, sure." Paul says, still a bit off balance, "I thought you were pizza."

"I- uh, unfortunately not." Hardy coughs awkwardly standing in the living room now. It was only slightly bigger than his old blue house from before Daisy had joined him in Broadchurch. 

Paul doesn't sit nor does he invite Hardy to do so. "What can I do for you, DI Hardy?"

Hardy can't help but pull a face slightly when Paul addresses him like that once again but he wipes it away quickly. He hates being called 'Alec', he reminds himself. It just felt so wrong for Paul to address him so formally. He grimaces at the floor and tries for a light tone. "I'm stopping by. You know, because earlier..."

"Nothing happened earlier. I just didn't want to talk. Sometimes people don't want to talk." Paul tells him, crossing his arms.

"Aye. That's true enough. I just thought..." Hardy takes a breath, feeling out of his depth with the way Paul is watching him, "Maybe you, ah, would want to? Uh, talk that is?"

"To you?" Paul asks and that really shouldn't hurt the way it does. It isn't as if they are friends. He hadn't even expected this to go well. It was honestly going better than expected so far. Hardy had half expected to get the door shut in his face. 

"You did before." Hardy shrugs, feeling like he's wasting his time. He is clearly sticking his nose where he isn't welcome.

"I was.. upset then. I didn't mean to trouble you." Paul's face is hard when he speaks, but the words make Hardy sort of, maybe not worried exactly, but curious. 

"You seem upset now." He points out to Paul and shrugs again and tugs at his lip with his teeth. "I'm just offering. I'm around, you know."

Paul looks at him incredulous for a painfully long moment. "Of all people." He mutters, seemingly to himself, and drops his arms. He walks away from Hardy into the small kitchen. 

"Of all people?" Hardy queries. He feels like he has lost track of the conversation and of Paul even though he's still within view in the kitchen. 

In the other room, Paul starts loudly getting the kettle on for tea and when he speaks his voice is full of a defeated frustration. "Do you know how long it's been since someone asked me how I was doing? Apart from your little suspicious interrogating earlier?"

The strain in his voice is clear and Hardy turns away from the kitchen to give Paul some privacy as he clattered around in there. He has a hunch that the man didn't want Hardy to see his face at the moment. "I wasn't interrogating you." He protests weakly.

"Sure." Paul's voice seeps with sarcasm.

"I wasn't, Paul." Hardy protests again with more ardor. 

Paul comes around back into the living room, thrusts a mug of tea into Hardy's hands, and drops onto his couch. His shoulders are curled forward and he clutches his mug peering at Hardy from where he is perched.

There is a chair at a small table off to the side of the couch in what must be a weak approximation of a dining area and Hardy turns it around to sit not feeling like he should sit next the Paul on his couch. The way Paul is sat with his puffy red ringed eyes once again signifying Paul's deeper upset gives him the impression he should tread carefully. 

Vacant eyes fix on the mug in his hands for a long time before Paul finally sighs, tired. "I was just having a shit day and something.. happened that made it a lot tougher to handle. I just wasn't coping well earlier. I'm fine now." He insists.

Mark's obsessive wild eyed look flashes through his head and he looks to Hardy. The eyes he finds there are very different. He isn't sure he has ever seen Alec look so gentle and open this way. It makes him feel a twinge of loss at having not seen him for years now, but more than that the look on the face of such a stubborn man makes him realize how much he himself has become tired and broken apart as of late. He feels cold and rotted inside. 

"You could talk to me about it, if you wanted." Hardy tells him, eyebrows drawn together in concern.

Paul waves a hand in front of himself dismissively, "It's just church stuff. Nothing you'd care to hear about. Not enough people, not enough money, and... Mark."

"Yes, Mark." Shifting uncomfortably, Hardy takes a sip of his tea before continuing."I'd heard he wasn't... adjusting..."

A humorless laugh escapes Paul, "Hah! That's one way to put it."

Neither seems inclined to meet the other's eyes and the only sound in the house is as the two sip tea uncomfortably in silence. 

Paul sits up straight and takes a deep breath to settle himself. "Look. It's been a long day and I really do have a pizza coming."

"Got it. I'll head out." Hardy hands over the half empty mug when Paul holds his hand out for it. The mood has shifted and it seems like Paul is drained of most of the anger he had been holding onto so tightly when Hardy had first arrived.

Paul even offers a tired hesitant little smile, "Thank you, Alec. For asking."

It surprises him so much that he half smiles, a bit self conscious. "Anytime." Paul nods and Hardy catches his eye with earnest. "I mean that."

Paul doesn't look like he knows how to respond to that, but he nods again tentatively after a beat. 

"See you around, Alec." Paul says before closing the door. 

It's pure luck that the pizza delivery car pulls up as Hardy is about to get in his own car. On impulse, he flags the driver and pays for Paul's pizza. It's the least he can do considering how rough the man had looked and he gets in his car hoping that Paul would actually take him up on his offer to talk if he needed to.


End file.
